Driving the Alberta Forestry Trunk Road in Canada

Vacation 2007 Part 1 of 7

After months of planning we embarked on the great summer vacation expedition of 2007.  We got away from our home in southern Oregon in the early morning of August 18, and three days of driving (1,000 miles) brought us to the Canadian port-of-entry at Kingsgate Alberta  (this is just north of the Idaho "panhandle").

 

We were almost turned away!  After answering "no" to the  question "do you have any firearms ?", and then "no" to "do you have any firearm ammunition?", the border agents went into a long huddle and then finally agreed we could enter Canada if we promised to wash the truck immediately.  Apparently they were concerned we may be transporting some loathsome agricultural pest under all the mud!

The plan was to drive up the Alberta Forestry Trunk Road.. a 600+ mile route up the east side of the Rocky Mountains, as part of our over-all trip to Yellowknife and the Great Slave Lake in the Northwest Territories.   The Trunk road was constructed to access the forests in western Alberta, and goes through some spectacular scenery.   Unfortunately an extremely high fire danger had closed the southern third of our planned route.

We drove further east to Highway 22 ("The Cowboy Way")  and turned north.  A short drive brought us to our first campsite in Alberta, at Chain Lakes Provincial Park.

 

Chain Lakes was almost deserted; in fact half of the campground had been closed off.  This was to be pretty much the situation throughout our trip.. we were never in a crowded campground until Labor Day weekend.  One of the campground hosts told us that most Canadians vacation in July, so we were well past the peak season.

By the next morning a tree stump had managed to hide itself inside a bush.  Naturally I backed into it while turning around, putting a nice gash in the stump and an even nicer dent in the tailgate.  

We continued north from Chain Lakes on Highway 22 to the tiny town (known as "hamlets" in Canada) of Longview, then southwest on #541 to finally reach the now-open  Forestry Trunk Road (Highway 40 in this area, and paved).  The road leads north through a beautiful provincial recreation area known as "Kananaskis Country".  We drove all morning and only saw a group of four fisherman where we stopped for lunch.

Leaving Kananaskis Country we crossed the major east-west highway Canada 1, and continued north on the Trunk Road, now Provincial Highway 734 (and gravel)!

The road passes through "multiple-use" country, which can include logging... oil & gas wells...

... and cows in the campgrounds.

Our adventures now led us into the Ram River Valley, one of the more scenic areas along the Forestry Trunk Road.  We stopped at Ram Falls Provincial Recreation Area.

Back on pavement, we stopped for the night at Watson Creek Provincial Recreation Area, near the coal mining town of Cadomin.

 

This was the nicest campground we stayed in along the Trunk Road.. and only $10 per night, including firewood!

 

I was so impressed that when we returned home I wrote a short note of appreciation to the contractor who maintained the grounds (Hinton Wood Products). 

They in turn sent me a nice map of the area, much better than any I had with me at the time.  Next time I will track down these maps ahead of time! 

We continued north, past the towns of Nordegg and Hinton.  We stopped at William A Switzer Provincial Park for showers and laundry.  This large complex of campgrounds and tourist facilities was the only place along the Forestry Trunk Road that seemed crowded (we did not stay).

Lunch stop at Grand Cache Lake.. a beautiful spot, but unfortunately a bit noisy due to the proximity of the highway.  A few rain showers as well, but we managed to stay dry.

 

After lunch we drove in to the town of Grand Cache proper where we cashed a few traveler's checks and stocked up on groceries.  The CIBC Bank charged me $2 to cash a traveller's check even though the check was for Canadian dollars.  This was the only time we had any "problem" with using traveler's checks, which we bought from Bank of America before we left home.

Driving north from Grande Cache we passed through Grand Prairie, which marks the northern end of the Forestry Trunk Road.  We had travelled over 700 miles from Canmore in the south in 5 days and saw some marvellous scenery (and few people).  The road was in much better condition than I had expected.  It could easily have been driven in any passenger car.

We camped for the night at Dunvegan Provincial Park at a crossing of the Peace River.  This was one a very few campgrounds where we saw more than one or two other parties.  We were there on a weekend, and the park is convenient to many communities in the area.  After more than a week pretty much by ourselves it felt a little claustrophobic!

 

Dunvegan is the site of one of Alberta's earliest fur-trapping posts and dates from 1805.  The park preserves a Catholic Rectory building built in 1889 and a Hudson's Bay Company Factor's house built in 1879. 

Like many Alberta campgrounds, this one provides free firewood for registered campers.  At Dunvegan we saw an interesting technique called "Crop Gard" applied to apparently reduce theft:  The firewood was littered with tiny plastic chips (about 1/8" square) encoded with a serial number that must identify the source of the wood.  A thief would be hard-pressed to clean all those tiny chips out of the crevices and irregularities in the wood.   I wonder if they impart a unique flavor to your barbecued steak?

The bridge at Dunvegan was built in 1960 to replace ferry service crossing the Peace River.  It is the longest spanning bridge in Alberta.

 

It is just up-stream from the campground, and unfortunately one hears the heavy traffic laboring up the hill from the bridge.  However, the rain muffled the noise somewhat so we managed to get a good night's sleep.

Here's an example of a "big" load headed north. > > >

At the town of Grimshaw we drove on to the beginning of the Mackenzie Highway.. north to the Northwest Territories, still two days away.

Our last camp in Alberta was at Notikewin Provincial Park, a beautiful and quiet spot on the Peace River.  After dodging construction trucks on the gravel access road we settled into a nice spot with no neighbors.

Rain started after dinner and continued through the night.  The next morning it was still coming down in buckets and as dark as midnight.  We quickly packed up and sloshed down the road for a restaurant breakfast.

 

By the time we reached a town large enough to actually have a restaurant, it was lunchtime.  We settled on brunch.. I had breakfast and Carolyn had lunch.   Carolyn declared that the french fries she had in High Level were far and away the best she had ever eaten.  I wish I could remember the name of the restaurant, but if you visit town it is about in the middle, west of the highway, and features "Chinese and Canadian Food".  It is surrounded on three sides by a closed and derelict motel.

 

 

After a week on the road (2000+ miles) we finally reached the southern border of the Northwest Territories.  We were "North of 60"!

 

Follow our further adventures in Part 2, along the Waterfalls Route in the Northwest Territories.